Rei
by waffles and blueberries
Summary: Edited, revamped version of my previous story "My Name is Rei". I'm back from the dead, basically. The team finds a Red Sentient oriented android in an ocean zone, and takes her home. What could go wrong, right?
1. Chapter 1 - Rei

**Bet no one ever figured they'd hear from me again, right? Hey Mr. War, if you're still here, I'm back! It's been almost four years but I'm back. So this was my original BF5 story here, still posted under My Name is Rei or something. This here, that you're reading, is the new and improved and edited version. I'm editing the whole story and continuing it. I hope you enjoy this version more than the previous.**

* * *

Tezz Volitov couldn't help but wonder what had just happened.

It'd been a regular day, save for the fact that he was actually out in the zone with the rest of the team, instead of cooped up back at the hub with AJ and Sage. The zone they'd been shipped off to was the same zone that Sage had mentioned earlier: she may have picked up a blue sentient signal, and even if it was unlikely, the thought excited her. As always, she was constantly on the intercom checking for updates on their progress. Suddenly the com beeped once again, tearing him away from his thoughts.

"Have you found anything yet?" Sage questioned eagerly, with no less enthusiasm from the previous check-in five minutes ago.

Vert sighed, exasperated. "No Sage, like I said, we'll tell you when we find something. Alright?"

Everyone noticed her voice fall in her reply. "I understand. I will stop pestering you and leave you to search!" There was a happier tone at the end of her sentence, hopefully indicating that she understood. The whole team was relieved. Silence would give them some peace and quiet to explore and actually pinpoint the signal. Yes, peace and quiet. No Sark, Vandal or Red Sentiant had yet to show in the water-based zone.

It was mostly ocean, with spiral tracks of land acting like bridges for them to follow. On the larger chunks of land the bridges led too often had rock structures or caves with moss and other pretty alien plants growing over them. The sky was a very soft pink, with the white sun high in the sky. Tezz had been insisting they search the nearby caves for any kind of life, ever since a particular (albeit weak) carbon-based signal popped up on his own, modified radar.

"Captian, I am telling you now. It's eerily human in signature and it's coming from there," He gestured to a cave not far north. "If you would at least let me-"

"Tezz, what happened the last time you went off alone?" Vert retorted, with flat tension. One by one the team slowly stopped their cars behind their captain, and stepped out for a better look at the opening half a kilometre away.

"I was captured by Vandals... But, this isn't Vandal! So far, we are the only living creatures here! What could possibly get in the way?"

Vert's glare was obvious. "What if there's some kind of mechanical creature that doesn't give a signal? What your "carbon signal" is an enemy? What if it caves in? What if it's like a maze, and you get lost? What of the Reds are back there, cloaking their signals? They've done that before! Or, what if-"

"Point taken, Captian." Tezz turned on his heel and headed back to the Splitwire, just as disappointed as Sage had been before. "We should just hone in on the blue sentient signal-"

"Maybe we could all go, Vert?" Agura piped up. Tezz looked up at Agura's suggestion, then gave a genuine, thankful smile. At least she knew how much this kind of stuff meant to him.

"Yeah Vert," Zoom hopped on the bandwagon, "You guys could go on inside and I could do recon! Warn you guys to get out before something happens, right?"

Both Cortez brothers nodded in agreement, Spinner even flashing a thumbs-up. Vert stared at the ground for a moment and crossed his arms. Zoom was right, having him on recon would help, and having them all go would be safer, and easiest, since Tezz was prone to debating, and later, sulking.

"Captian, have you considered this may be the signal Sage was talking about? Sentient or not, it's the first signal any of us have picked up since arrival." Tezz flicked his eyes back and forth between Vert and the cave, then down at his radar.

"... Alright, but we stick together! Zoom, you can start scouting if you want."

"Yeah! Yo, Sherm!" Zoom called. Sherman was way ahead like always, and the ramp was already in position. "All good, Zoom!"

The cave was exponentially larger up close than it was half a kilometre away. With Zoom already inside scouting, Vert led the others into what looked like a black wall. It was solid darkness until their headlights pierced through.

"Why did this place have to be so dark?" Vert muttered to himself, only half listening to Tezz's elated rambling on possibilities of what the signal could be. Agura stuck close to Vert as always, with Sherman and Spinner at the end of the line.

"Wouldn't it have shown up as a blue sentient signal if it was one, Tezz? You said it was carbon-based," Agura asked. They were fairly deep into the cave by now, and as Tezz mentioned, more than fifty kilometres under ground, and the actual "rooms" just kept getting bigger.

"Not necessarily." He answered simply, still taking in the dark surroundings. Their headlights lit the cave enough to see where they were going, leading through countless twists and turns, much like a maze as Vert mentioned. The rock on the outside appeared to be almost a maroon, but on the inside Tezz couldn't tell. Too dark. They all rode in silence for a time, more focused on tracking the signal than anything, until the com frequency opened for the first in a long while.

"Guys, I think I found something. No alien, no sentient, either. A girl." Zoom stated.

Vert stopped. "A girl? What do you mean, Zoom?"

"Like, a girl? Can't be more than thirteen. She's passed out, too, or at least I hope so. I almost didn't see her under all this rock, but she's wearing something white and reflective. I don't know how she got here."

"Take us there." Tezz and Vert commanded at the same time. Zoom led them over their coms through countless other turns until they all met in the same room. What seemed to be the end of the cave was a circular dome-like room, with a see through ceiling, the ocean above it. It was calming, with a blue glow to it, as the lights in all 4 'corners' were blue flames. The crumbling walls were covered in what looked like tribal paintings, but the figures (or creatures) were indistinguishable. But in one of the piles of rubble that cluttered the floor, a girl lied face-down on the ground, her arm and her head sticking out to be seen.

Sherman and Vert worked to carefully move the rubble around as to not cause more rocks to fall onto her, while Agura and Zoom held onto her and tried to pull her out. About ten minutes of work later, and she was out of the pile. A young girl in a plain, white (and reflective, like Zoom said), long sleeved dress that ended above her knees. She had short, coal black hair that ended in a perfect straight line, and bangs that sort of went every which way. She had no shoes, and it seemed her entire body was covered in cuts and bruises, although, that wasn't surprising. The two most predominant marks were on her face: she had one gaping wound that stretched from the front of her left ear to the middle of her forehead, and a deep scar that went over her right eye and down to the middle of her cheek.

Vert's heart went out to the child, seeing her that way. He almost regretted originally saying no to the investigation.

"How long do you think she's been here?" Zoom pondered. Vert shook his head. "I have no idea. Anyone else agree that we need to take her with us?"

Everyone called out a 'yes' or a 'of course' except for the scientist.

Tezz sat crouched in front of the child's sleeping figure, scanner of sorts in one hand and radar in the other. Results of the scan came speeding back quicker than anticipated, and the actual results were more... shocking than expected.

"Ah, Captian..." Vert looked to face Tezz.

"What is it, Tezz?"

The girl's eyes flashed open, revealing no pupil and a blinding white light, almost like staring directly at the sun.

Faint beeping emitted from what seemed to be the girl's head, sofltly, like a heartbeat.

"Well, she's online." Tezz remarked.

Other soft noises like clicks and gears slowly grew audible as the child slowly brought herself to a standing position, much like an automaton.

Then the light was gone. Her eyes were completely normal; a light hazel color with gold flecks near the center.

"Hello, my name is Rei. Hola, mi nombre es Rei. Bonjour, Je m'appelle Rei. Hallo, mien name ist Rei. Ni hao, wo de mingzi Rei. Konnichiwa, watashi wa namaega Rei desu. Privyet, menya zouvut Rei. Kamusta, ang pangalan ko ay Rei..." She continued on.

Tezz's eyes widened immediately. He stepped closer to the girl, against Vert and Agura's attempts to restrain him. "Menya zouvut Tezz. Priyatno poznakomit'sya."


	2. Chapter 2 - Sage

**Alright here's what you're waiting for. I'm still as lazy as before. Go figure. Continuity issues have been fixed (original CH1 stating she disliked her most recent master for abandoning her, then in CH2 holding Krytus in high regard, this has been fixed) And, I'm not gonna do what everyone on tumblr does and just type russian and make you scroll back and forth. If it's Tezz or Rei, and it's italicized, just make some Russian sounding noises in your head.**

* * *

 _"My name is Tezz, it's good to meet you."_

After his introduction, there were a few more clicks, then silence. The girl, Rei, tilted her head, and her eyes flashed once more before returning to normal.

"Language domain: Russian. Confirmed." Her voice was smooth; not quite real but not entirely synthesized. Melodic, yet unnerving. She glanced around a bit- first she took in her surroundings. She seemed entirely mesmerized by the ocean tones and the way the light danced on the ground through the top of the dome. Then she acknowledged the man who answered her, who was currently restrained by a man in red and a woman in green.

 _"Why are they holding you?"_ She inquired. This time, her head tilted to the side in confusion. Tezz couldn't place what was coming over him, but he felt the need to smile. And even giggle a little at the girl's question. After a moment, he scrunched his nose and shook the smile away. They didn't know this girl. She could yet be dangerous.

 _"I don't believe I was supposed to speak to you, but out of impulse, I did anyway. It's been awhile since I've been able to converse with another person in my mother tongue."_

 _"You are Tezz?"_

 _"Yes. Tezz Volitov."_

Rei nodded and jumped up and down like a child. Stretching her arms outward, she emitted a noise that sounded like a cross between a cat screeching and a toddler screaming. It was loud enough that Stanford nearly jumped out of his shoes.

 _"Where are you from? Are you from here? Do you think I could come with you? My master discarded me here, saying I had a glitch. My mind is full of holes, and I don't remember much else. But where are you from? Please tell me!"_ She rambled on and on, question after question. The rest of the team simply glanced back and forth between the child and their scientist.

"Hey, uh, Tezz? _What_ is she saying?" Agura's grip on his arm loosened. He shook his arm free and tried to rub some of the soreness from her iron grip away.

"She wants to know where we are from, and if she can come with us. She says her master left her here because of a glitch, and her memory is a bit faulty." he explained. She nodded along with him, even though she couldn't understand a word Tezz had said to the rest of them.

"No." Vert shot, turning back to his vehicle. Apparently Rei recognized _that_ word.

 _"What? Why 'no'? I must go with you all! Mr. Tezz, tell them I must go with you!"_ Rei clung to Tezz's leg like a three year old, hoping to elicit a different response. Vert only rolled his eyes. His previous opinion was still fresh in everyone's minds, and Zoom spoke up. "Whoa, cap, just a few minutes ago, you were the one who brought up first that we should take her with us. Turns out she's not human, and you change your mind?" The rest of them nodded in semi agreement.

"She belongs to someone. Whether or not they actually dropped her here is a concern. How do you know she's not a spy for the Reds? Made to look human to play on our sympathies? Or what if she belongs to a whole other group that we don't even know about? Not to mention she acts no older than three, I don't even want to think about what a handful she'll be at the hub. And we can't take her anywhere, she's _obviously_ inhuman, anyone could tell by watching her. She'll blow our cover. We do _not_ want the Feds after us again*." He looked over his shoulder at the girl, who held a blank face through most of his monologue. "Vert's right," Agura agreed. "She'll have to stay here. What if whoever owns her comes looking for her?"

Tezz wanted to fight back, make a case for her, but for the second time that day, he found himself speechless, and he wasn't even sure why. All he could do was smile sympathetically. _"I'm afraid I cannot convince them. Once Vert has made up his mind, he cannot be shifted. My apologies, Rei."_ The cyborg's eyes began to water at the edges, and out of instinct, she sat back on the ground and buried her face in her arms. But almost as quickly as she began crying, she stopped.

 _"His name is Vert, you say?"_

Any sympathy he felt for the child vanished the moment her face twisted into an evil grin. Rei stood up straight in one smooth movement, and fixated her artificial eyes on their leader. _"Mr. Tezz, please translate what I say."_ Warily, he nodded. _"Mr Vert. Either you are to take me with you, to your planet, so I am no longer alone, or I_ will _activate my self destruct. Do you know how powerful a kiloton of TNT is? Imagine_ 18 _kilotons. The power of an A-bomb. Enough to destroy a zone, I'd say._ You _know what would happen if an entire zone was to be destroyed, right?"_

Tezz couldn't look away from her for a solid thirty seconds, and when he did, his face was paler than it had ever been. This child didn't need sympathy. "She... says she has a self destruct feature. In her, apparently. With the power of an 18 kiloton A-bomb. She could destroy the zone, and probably anything outside of it within a certain kilometer radius."

"... Right..."

* * *

The desert amazed her. The _desert._

 _"So, you are of E-arth? My master spoke of E-arth, he called it a terrible place. But this is not terrible, not at all! This is most wonderful! Mr Tezz, you did not say you were of E-arth, no, but I am glad to see that you are! Yes, an escape at last! My former master will never find me here! Thank you, very much!, Oh, and-"_

"TEZZ, SHUT HER UP _PLEASE_! I haven't even met the girl and I'm not entirely sure I want to!" Stanford's voice shook the comm speakers from back at the hub. The others slowly grumbled in agreement; the girl had been rambling ever since Tezz had hooked a seat belt around her. It was even _worse_ that no one but their scientist could make anything of it. Her voice had become an annoying background track with no off switch. Tezz relayed to her what Stanford had requested, and the two of them broke out laughing. Tezz was _laughing,_ and not because he'd made an intelligent joke that no one but he understood.

 _"You must tell him that until he stitches my mouth closed, I will never cease speaking! Ever..."_ She stopped mid-sentence to observe in awe the mastery of the hub. She acknowledged the fact that they had gone underground, but she would never have anticipated the size or magnificent architecture... Or the fact it was _Sentient_ based. Her face fell and she squared her shoulders. _"You are with the Sentients? That is... Unprecedented. Master Krytus cannot know I am here. I must be careful."_

Vert slammed on his brakes, and in turn almost caused an accident. "Did she say _Krytus_ somewhere in there?"

 _"Rei? Krytus is your master? Why didn't you say so?"_ Tezz questioned, parking his car in it's usual spot.

Everyone had managed to avoid crashing into Vert, and went to park in their respective places. Rei waited a few moments before leaving the Splitwire, and when she did, she stayed close to Tezz and shuffled her feet quite a bit. _"Oh, yes, he was... most intriguing. He initially saved me from my creator, Kage, and gave me a new life with new meaning, but... I was not always in agreement with him. And he would find ways to force me into agreement. He said I am to destroy the planet of E-arth when I get the chance, but I... Don't want to. I never have. He wiped my original programming and gave me free thought, but at the same time, he did not."_

No one heard Sage float into the room. "Was the mission successful? I assume you did not find the source of the signal, as I got no notification, or... Who is this?" The Sentient causally made her way to the center of the group with a data pad in her hand. She smiled at all of them until her eyes fell on the girl. Not even Vert could read what she was thinking.

Tezz held onto Rei's shoulder to assure her she was safe before introducing her. "Sage, this is... Rei. We found her in the battle zone. She is not human, but rather a type of android. She also has ties to your brother, but she's not hostile and resents him quite a bit." It wasn't wrong. The rest of them didn't understand what she'd told Tezz about Krytus, so it was their first time hearing it as well. "There's a little language barrier at the moment, but I believe you and I can alleviate that issue."

Stanford stepped forward, with an annoyed look and a furious tone, shouting, "She also has a bit of a problem keeping her mouth shut! Teach her how to be quiet, will you?" Rei assumed the purple one was insulting her in some way, judging by his gestures and volume, but she hadn't the slightest idea what he was insulting about her, so she only blinked in his direction. Sherman scoffed. "You're one to talk about not shutting up, Stanford."

By then, Rei had acknowledged that Stanford and AJ were in the room, and she pointed at them so Tezz could introduce her to them as well. Once the two of them were somewhat familiar with her and her situation, it was time to discuss what to do with her.

"You all should go ahead to the diner and celebrate like usual. I will keep Rei here for testing and to look at the language problem. When you return, we will discuss what is to become of her." Sage concluded. Tezz translated for Rei in a hushed whisper, and she looked uncomfortable at the thought of being left alone with a Sentient, even if she was blue and much kinder than Krytus.

Vert shook his head in disapproval. "You can't stay alone with her, Sage. She threatened to destroy the battle zone back there, and somehow I don't doubt she has the power. That was her only hostile moment, but she's also been surrounded by a bunch of humans since she got here. I don't trust her alone with anyone but Tezz yet. I really don't trust _anyone_ alone with her, but at least Tezz can communicate with her and she seems to like him well enough anyway."

"Then, perhaps you'd be willing to stay behind, Tezz?" Rei looked up at him and she was obviously still uncomfortable. He told her that Sage wanted to run some tests and try to fix the language issue, and that if she wanted him too, he could stay behind with her so she wouldn't be alone with Sage. After a few seconds of thought, and a few wary glances in Sage's general direction, she shook her head.

 _"I think I will be alright. She doesn't intimidate me."_ She wiggled her way out of Tezz's grasp on her shoulder, and strode over to Sage's side. _"Please hurry back. I will miss you, Mr. Tezz."_ Reluctantly, she took Sage's hand, and they both waved goodbye to the team as they got back into their cars. _She'll probably be fine,_ Tezz thought to himself. _Probably._

* * *

Rei dangled her feet off the edge of the raised medical bench, anxious for Sage's return, but not excited. It worried the girl that another Sentient had actually found a way to access her core, and mess around with it. Luckily, while poking around and thinking her way through security checks, Sage had found a way to undo the language domain. There was a bit of trial and error, deactivation, reactivation, and even more security checks, but eventually she managed to find the domain command and switch it off. The girl could now speak and understand any spoken human language.

Sage floated back into the med bay holding a small metallic rectangle that she plugged into the main computer. It was probably her diagnostics results. "Well, Rei... I believe this should help with your memory a bit. Let's see... You are a Sentient creation, a Mirainohito* type of android, correct?" Rei nodded. "You are near 2,460 years old, yes?" She nodded again. "Your full name is Kagenorei*, and you are droid number C6-H4-C13?" _Paradichlorobenzene,_ Sage noted. Rei made a sort of 'mhm' noise in confirmation. "Well, other than a few minor scrapes and a few wires out of place behind your access panel, you are perfectly fine. Unfortunately, there is a firewall barrier installed to prevent anyone from seeing your actual programming, so I'll bring that up with Tezz later." Tezz and Vert, actually, but she thought mentioning Vert might unnerve the girl.

"Alright." Rei jumped down from the medical bench and stretched all her limbs. "Do you mind if I follow you around, Sage? Until Mr. Tezz returns. Oh! Yes, yes, wait until Mr Tezz sees that he no longer needs to translate, I believe he will be very pleased." She didn't speak as freely and as excitedly as she had been. Sage figured it was still residual discomfort. The Sentient stopped in the middle of the hallway for a moment to face Rei.

"Rei, why is it that you only address Tezz as a mister and not the others?"

She cracked a minuscule smile. "He spoke to me first, therefore I see him as a master of sorts. The first voice my sensors recognize is the voice that I obey. The same goes for which language I am to use, but you've fixed that, so... Um, would you mind if I addressed you as Miss?" The request startled her. The girl threatens to destroy a battle zone, a feat she's certainly capable of doing, and now she was asking permission to use a respectful prefix.

"Was Krytus truly your previous master? And he truly abandoned you?" Rei's face fell and almost took on a darker tone. Sage didn't blame her, Krytus was a depressing and anger-inducing topic among their team.

"Yes, and I hated him."

"I don't blame you. Are you alright telling me what he did to you? I know my brother. He is selfish and destructive, and has no regard for anyone but his own. Did he hurt you?"

"He ordered me to do many evil things. He forced me to kill and torture, and he had my creator program me to be able destroy zones and small planets. He made me his personal servant, in numerous ways that I'd rather not speak of... _He_ was evil, and irreversible on his stances. I asked only once why I had to do such things, since Master Kage was never so cruel, and he answered by slicing my face." Rei fingered the scar that stretched across and over her right eye. It wasn't too noticeable until she pointed it out, but now that Sage could see it clearly, it looked like it had really hurt.

Sage felt her pain. To do such things to who seemed to be more or less a child was unforgivable. But, admittedly, even with as cooperative as she'd been the entire time, Sage was still a little wary. A change of subject wouldn't be a terrible idea. "Rei, do you require sustenance of any kind? I'm sure there's plenty in the kitchen that the team won't mind sharing." The girl didn't need to eat or drink to survive, but she could recall doing so anyway a few times with Krytus simply for entertainment, a pastime. The act wasn't entirely pleasant in her opinion, but food in itself was tolerable.

"Sure." She took Sage's hand, who led her down a few floors and through a few hallways. The team's kitchen always had an ambient orange-like light on at all times, almost like a night light. The appliances were all very high-tech and stainless steel, and had all seen heavy usage. Sage floated over to the refrigerator, hoping to find a few slices of pizza left over from the night before that one of them had perhaps brought home with them. No such luck, however. There were a few vegetables that looked past their prime, and several cases of soda, but not much else. They really did eat out most of the time. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Rei standing by the sink, and at the same time she began processing the sound of water running.

"This is amazing," Rei whispered, running her hand under the stream of water back and forth to make the water move in weird ways. She soon figured out that after turning it off and back on again, how hard she pushed on the handle determined the pressure of the stream. Sage shook her head and gently switched the water off, giving her a look akin to a parent catching a child in the act. Once the water was off, Rei had lost interest in the sink. She walked over to the refrigerator, and even though she strangely couldn't figure out how to open it, she _had_ found the ice dispenser. Sage let her play with it for a moment, and only stopped her when the pile of ice at her feet began growing much too quickly. She was genuinely fascinated by simple human appliances, and it made Sage wonder in what kind of conditions Krytus forced her to live in.

She dropped the contaminated ice cubes into the sink, and when she turned around, the fridge door was open. Rei was on her knees, sifting through the numerous boxes and brands of soda. Every few seconds she would pick up a can and spin it around, but then she'd put it back and go for another one. Sage was about to stop her and offer a glass of water, but she had a green can in her hand. She used her index finger to merely punch a hole on top of the can, then she brought it to her nose to inspect. To Sage's relief, Rei shot her head away from the can in total disgust, then set it back in the fridge. "Rei, how about a glass of water and some noodles or something of the like? I can prepare them both for you. If you'd like, you can sit down at the table." She complied, and kept her eyes on Sage's hands as she worked with the stove and a small box with yellow and blue on the front that read "macaroni and cheese". Ten minutes later and Sage was carrying over a bowl of "macaroni and cheese", with a glass of pure ice water. Hesitantly, she brought the spoon to her mouth and tried a little bite of the "macaroni". Rei was pleasantly surprised, the heat of it was comforting and the sauce over the noodles was one of the best things she'd ever eaten.

* * *

Vert placed his hand on Sage's shoulder while they both watched Tezz lead the girl to his room, where he'd set up a temporary bed for her until they could figure out something permanent. Tezz would probably insist she take his bed, even if he wouldn't ever offer it to anyone else. The whole team was starting to notice that he treated her much differently than he treated the rest of them. He was softer around her, more prone to smiling and laughing, and genuinely a better person. It was amusing. "How'd she do? Did she give you any problems?"

"No, not one. She was a little nervous at first when we had to start digging into her core, but after that she seemed relatively comfortable with me. We fixed the language issue and she's now fluent in most forms of human communication. We spoke a little of her history, but she seemed in pain, so I prepared her some food to take her mind off my brother."

Vert nodded, then crossed his arms like he did when he was in thought. "We need to come to a group decision about what to do with her. If she's staying, how to handle her, how to go about having her with us. She looks like a child, we can't just tell Grace and the others that she joined the team." The others had all left to go to their respective rooms, with the exception of Spinner and Zoom who went downstairs to the lounge room to play video games. Thankfully no one had let anything slip at the diner about finding a child, but it wouldn't be a secret for long no matter how hard they tried to hide her. "I think I'm gonna hit the hay, Sage. Tezz has her, she'll be fine for the night. Talk to you in the morning."

* * *

 *** the Feds- an incident that didn't happen in the show but has happened in my Rei timeline. You'll hear the rest of it later. Probably chapter four. Who knows.**

 *** I was a weeb back then. Not so much now, but I liked the name. Mirainohito can be loosely translated as "future human", as a play on the android trope of being the "new and improved human".**

 *** Kage means shadow. No is usually used like "of". Rei of Shadows. #ebonydarksouledgelordWaffle**


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